HGA, I don't see this as specifically a left/right issue -- free speech is threatened in some way by all political persuasions.

This is a freedom worth killing or dying for.

What else would you expect from the ACLU? They're disgusting.

The ACLU is the same group that defends NAMBLA, the North American Man Boy Love Association.

holygrailale:

Not to nitpick or anything, but I think Voltaire said it first. But I agree with you: too many people forget what they learned in grade school about this stuff.

WACKO SPIN. The ACLU also defends religious liberty while not advocating one religion over another. Defending liberty, what a bunch of bastards. The ACLU does NOT support sexual relationships between adults and children-that case was a speech issue, idiot.

Eric, if you want to do something positive for your country, leave.

I used to respect Pat Roberts. Now, he wants to make it impossible for government employees to let the public know when their tax money is being wasted or when crimes have been committed, and God knows how much waste and criminal activity there is at the Federal level.

Brownback, Roberts, Ryun and the other representative from Kansas have been borrowing hundreds of billions each year from the commies to piss away through fiscal liberalism. They love to borrow money in our names and give away to tax-sucking monopolies and other crooks simply because these tax-suckers put them in office,

Now, they want to seal the lips of conscientious government workers who expose fraud, waste, crime and violations of our Constitution.

Since they are selling us out to the commies anyway, Roberts, Brownback, Ryun and the other fiscal liberals who represent us ought to move to China to work in an system that matches their totalitarian views of government. With their kind out of the picture, America can get back to the principles that made us great.

I have a simple litmus test for any politician:

If said politician ever utters the phrase "all we need to do is...", then that person is nothing more than a partisan hack, imbecile, or a dangerous demagogue.

Our problems in this country are complex. It seems like any politician in this political climate that tries to make that point is painted as a "Washington insider" or power broker is beyond me. I stray far afield from conservative approaches to anything, but I actually did like the attitude that Bob Dole brought to legislating. He realized that tiny steps forward were so much more important than making the rounds of the talk shows and being defined as a one-issue candidate.

Perhaps it's not too late for us to return to this type of approach to politics.

Hey, people are missing the point here. This isn't about the ACLU. Rather, this is an attack on the judgment of federal judges and is part of a large scheme adopted by radicals in recent years to demonize the judiciary.

Such fees have been recoverable against governments for civil rights cases precisely because government by its size, power and resources often discourages individuals from filing suit against it. Also, government is not a typical defendant, uncertain of the law and in need of particular expertise to defend against claims - government reguarly maintains its own legal counsel anyway. There really is no excuse for a government entity to lose more than a minimal number of these cases given often clear precedential law unless the are refusing for invalid (probably political) reasons to comply. Such federal losing party fee rules have been adopted precisely as a means of encouraging settlement and discouraging litigation.

In other words, this is one more rock in the stones being cast at the judical branch due to its insistence on independence and its refusal to "get a clue" and bend the Constitution to the dictates of extremists like Brownback.

The basic consequence of such a plan would be to allow governments to "thumb their nose" at challenges to their actions, with the Establishment Clause being applied only so far as the ACLU or others are willing and able to pay for litigating matters government entity by government entity - and no farther. More litigation, not less, will be the result.

J, Didn't miss the point just stating an opinion not writing a paper. I wish I had that kind of time.

However you are absolutely correct, the R has been after the judiciary for quite a while; the J stands in the way of their coup.

b